A gas turbine generally includes an inlet section, a compressor section, a combustion section, a turbine section and an exhaust section. The inlet section cleans and conditions a working fluid (e.g., air) and supplies the working fluid to the compressor section. The compressor section progressively increases the pressure of the working fluid and supplies a compressed working fluid to the combustion section. The compressed working fluid and a fuel are mixed within the combustion section and burned in a combustion chamber to generate combustion gases having a high temperature and pressure. The combustion gases are routed along through a hot gas path into the turbine section where they expand to produce work. For example, expansion of the combustion gases in the turbine section may rotate a shaft connected to a generator to produce electricity.
The compressed air provided by the compressor may reach pressures in excess of 300 psig. In particular instances, such as startup of the gas turbine, operation on low heating fuel, or using the compressor as a load in a gas turbine testing facility, it becomes necessary to wholly or at least partially dump or exhaust the compressed air from the compressor and/or a combustion discharge casing that is disposed downstream from the compressor and upstream from the turbine as required by the gas turbine operations.
Various venting systems are known. However, the release of a large quantity of the highly pressurized compressed air to atmospheric pressure creates a situation where a high level of energy needs to be dissipated in a limited size venting system, which may cause vibrations. These vibrations may result in high cycle fatigue stress on the various components of the vent systems. Therefore, an improved system for discharging compressor air from the compressor would be useful.